Hybrid Meeting - Fatima Haidari, my story

Hybrid Meeting 

Look forward to meet everyone in person, dim sum and noodle lunch $30/person. RSVP to Suna president@richmondrotary.com. If you cannot make it, join Zoom

12 noon - social, 12:15pm - meeting starts, 12:20pm program, 12:30pm lunch being served

​ZOOM ID - 604 778 0162 | Password - 202020

https://zoom.us/j/6047780162?pwd=WjdCUWd5N1FyWnVicFI5M3FhSUZ6dz09

Hybrid Meeting - Fatima Haidari, my story

Fatima Haidari (فاطمه حیدری); was born in Afghanistan. She is 24 years old. She belongs to the Hazara community, an ethnic group in Afghanistan. Her ethnicity plays a huge role in her refugee journey and the fact that she had to leave her family behind at the age of 17.

Fatima is former refugee; she settled in Turtle Island in 2015 when she was only 17 years old without her family. She studied at Langara College for two years. Currently, she is studying joined major in Criminology and Gender Studies at Simon Fraser University. 

She worked and volunteered with different non-profit organizations in different capacity such as facilitator, co-facilitator, interpreter, and other roles. In her free time, she likes to go hiking, biking, watch documentary, comedy, and volunteering in community. 

She is passionate about social activism, refugee rights, Hazara history, advocacy, and giving back to community in any way. Her lived experiences as former refugee brought her closer to the issues that impact refugees.  In addition, she has a very special connection to nature, and land because she grew up in a village called Maknak Malistan in Ghanzi province. 

Currently, Fatima is working with Intercultural Association of Greater Victoria as RAP Life Skills Worker in Victoria. Her family members (mother, five sisters, one of her brothers, her two nieces, and two of her unlce’s families) escaped to Pakistan on August 22, 2021, due to current crisis and being Hazara. Because of being Hazara, they were denied entry to Pakistan land five times when they attempted to cross the border. In other words, being Hazara have made both the escape and living in Afghanistan unbearable as the Hazaras have been prosecuted and oppressed both historically and currently. Luckily, they managed to make it to Pakistan after multiple tries; however, her family members are in a very difficult situation in Pakistan. In addition, some of her family members including her father, her sister-in-law with her two children, and her brother-in-law are still in Afghanistan; they have not been able to escape yet.